FCC Garners $284M in Initial Bids in New 24GHz 5G Auction

The FCC pulled in $284 million in the first round of its second-ever auction of 5G spectrum licenses, which commenced on Thursday.

The government agency is auctioning off 2,909 24GHz millimeter wave licenses. Total bids in the first round hit $284,144,450. In contrast, the previous 28GHz 5G spectrum license auction kicked off with just over $36 million in bids on November 14, 2018. The 28GHz auction ended in January with total provisionally winning bids of just over $700 million. (See FCC's 28GHz 5G Auction Kicks Off With $36M+ in Bids.)

Much of the early bidding excitement in this 24GHz auction is centering around major metropolitan areas in the US. For instance, the New York license scored a high bid of $5,047,000, with Los Angeles following at $3,882,000 and Chicago at $1,873,000.

Qualified bidders in the auction include major mobile operators such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, among 38 bidders. Cable companies, Cox Communications and Frontier, however, were turned down as "non-qualified" by the FCC. (See Cox, Frontier Won't Bid in 24GHz 5G Auction .)

Spectrum analysts anticipate that the 24GHz auction should be more successful than the previous 28GHz sell-off. AllNet Insights & Analytics predicted in January that the 24GHz Auction 102 could generate between $2.4 billion to $5.6 billion in final proceeds. (See Forget 28GHz, the 24GHz Auction Is the One to Watch.)